My Sermon at the NORML meeting

My buddy Tristan Tucker asked me to speak at the recent DFW/NORML meeting. 
NORML is the National Organization For The Reform Of Marijuana Laws. 

I decided to take on a Southern Baptist Preacher persona and give the smokers and tokers a sermon.  It was well-received. 

BTW, only a Libertarian would selectively edit the Old Testament to improve the flow.  Yes, we really do believe we can improve on stuff supposedly written by God. 

Enjoy. 

My name is the Reverend Doctor Allen Patterson, and I bring you greetings from the First Church Of The Tarrant County Libertarian Party!!  Our text for today is from the Book of 1^st Samuel, Chapter 8.

Look it up on your phone so you won’t think I’m making this stuff up.  Way back in the day, Israel was governed by a small group of judges, and their only job was to intervene in disputes, enforce the laws of the land, and protect the borders. 

Does that sound nice?  Yeah, that sounds nice.  1 Samuel, Chapter 8. 

⁴ One day the people of Israel came to Samuel The Prophet ⁵ and said, “You are an old man.  Now we want a king to be our leader,  just like all the other nations. We want a king!  Choose one for us!”

⁶ Samuel was upset to hear the leaders say they wanted a king, so he prayed about it. ⁷ The Lord answered:

“They aren’t rejecting you and your judges, Samuel.  They’re rejecting me. ⁹ Do everything they ask, but warn them and tell them how a king will treat them.

¹⁰ Samuel told the people who were asking for a king what the Lord had said:

¹¹ If you have a king, this is how he will treat you. He will force your sons to join his army. Some of them will drive his chariots, and some will be in his cavalry.  Your other children will have to farm the king’s land and harvest his crops, or make the king’s weapons and parts for his chariots. <sup>13 

And the people STILL said “Give us a king!”</sup> 

And Samuel said “Your daughters will have to make his perfume or do his cooking and baking.” And the people Still said “Give us a king!”

¹⁴ The king will take your best fields, as well as your vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his own officials. ¹⁵ He will also take a tenth of your grain and grapes and give it to his officers and his officials.  (Can you imagine the government taking only a tenth??)

And the people Still said “Give us a king!”

¹⁶ And Samuel said “this king will take your best young men and your donkeys and make them do his work. ¹⁷ He will also take a tenth of your sheep and goats. You will become the king’s slaves, ¹⁸ and you will finally cry out for the Lord to save you from the king you wanted.

^19-20 The people would not listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want to be like other nations. We want a king to rule us and lead us in battle.”

²¹ Samuel listened to them and then told the Lord exactly what the people had said.

And the Lord answered. “So…..Give them a king.”

Thus ends the reading of today’s word from the Lord. 

DFW/NORML, for 3,000 years we’ve known how kings and governments behave.  And yet some of us still say “Give Us A King!”  There's a little girl named Emma sitting at this front table.  She's totally innocent.  Never spent a dime in her life.  Our kings and their government and their reckless spending have put Emma $50,000.00 in debt.  If  Emma’s foolish enough to grow up to be a taxpayer, her share of the national debt is $110,000.00

Emma's share of the unfunded retirements, Social Security payments and other liabilities?  ONE MILLION DOLLARS. 

And some of us still say “Give Us A King”. 

The Richard Nixon through Barack Obama Drug War has killed 40,000 civilians in Mexico.  We have as many as 800,000 people in prison for non-violent drug offenses.  It costs 40 to 50,000 each, per year, to keep these people in a steel cage. 

And we still say “Give Us A King.”

George Bush, Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger and RICK FREAKIN’ SANTORUM all affirm that they have smoked marijuana, all of them would’ve had their careers ended if they’d been busted as kids, and ALL OF THEM STILL SUPPORT THE WAR ON MARIJUANA.  And their parties still say “Give Us A King”. 

Because of the war on marijuana, Barack Obama has more black men living in cages than Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy did at the start of the Civil War.

And the people still say “Give Us A King”. 

Church family, my brothers and sisters at DFW/NORML, we are all sinners.  There is none who is righteous, no, not one.  We have all, in our sinful pasts, voted for Republicans and Democrats, the people who got us into the mess predicted in the Book of First Samuel 3,000 years ago.  We’ve all done it. 

But there is a way out.  And it’s called The Tarrant County Libertarian Party.   Are you ready to end the war on marijuana?  Are you ready to get the government out of your life?  ARE YOU READY? 

Brother Ken Stanford is waiting at the table in the back, along with the rest of our trained counseling staff.  Though your sins be as scarlet, we can make them white as snow.  Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  There is no other way, there is no other path.  If the other parties could get you out of this hole you’re in, they would’ve done it by now instead of digging it deeper. 

ARE YOU READY TO MAKE A DECISION FOR CHRIST???

So….

May the Lord Bless you and keep you, May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.

May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short;

Grace to risk something big for something good

Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love and tolerance for all….

So may God take your minds and think through them,

May God take your lips and speak through them,  And may God take your hearts, and set them on fire. 

Amen. 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party Flyer

My friend Shaun McAlister, of DFW/NORML fame, has a day job doing media work.

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party wanted a brochure, something we could hand out at events, debates, schools and such.  We gave Shaun a few bullet-points, some logos, and some Facebook pages where he could look for pics. 
Lord have mercy, look what the boy came up with!!  I'm proud of this thing. 

If you ever need some freelance media work done - print, video, or internet - Shaun is THE man.  End of story. 

Mike Coyne and I shamelessly ripped off the subject headings from the National and State LP sites.  The individual bullet-points are standard Mike Coyne rants and Whited Sepulchre blog entries. 

Can you imagine what a Republican or Democrat flyer of this type would read like?  Democrats having to justify a horrific economy, multiple wars, drones, invasions of privacy, failure-factory schools and enough black men in prison to fill up 20 Super Bowls?  Republicans trying to justify the military-industrial B.S., the War On Drugs, subsidies, tax exemptions for buddies, and a desire to take over your bed, bong, babies and bourbon? 

I love, love, love me some Libertarian party. 

Why Marijuana Users Tend To Be Economic Libertarians

I just spent a pleasant weekend at the DFW/NORML Regional Conference in downtown Fort Worth. 
Video will shortly follow, I'm sure, since Director Shaun McAlister rarely even eats breakfast without rolling tape. 

After my rant (in which I also had the honor of introducing the Libertarian Party's Vice-Presidential candidate Judge Jim Gray to the crowd), we spent a lot of time at our booth handing out LP literature, and encouraging a large crowd of marijuana consumers to take the Nolan Quiz. 

Here are Tarrant County LP Executive Committee members Jeff Lippincott and Michael Coyne with Judge Gray at our propaganda table. 

The stereotype would be for most of the marijuana consumers to be Left/Liberal.  Wrong!  That turns out to be a false impression leftover from growing up in the 1960's and 1970's.  As Jeff put it to me, "That test is gold." 

If you've never taken the Nolan Quiz before, go here.  It's just ten questions, and gives you a snapshot of your political leanings on a chart that looks like this:

Perhaps 80% of the attendees tested out as Libertarian.  Amazing.  (Yeah, the test is ever so slightly biased.  We wouldn't hand it out otherwise.) 
But it amazed me that the crowd of old tokers and Generation X activists tested out as LARGE FREAKIN' "L" LIBERTARIAN on economic issues.   

Here's a theory....

For the most part, marijuana users believe in the "I own me/You own you" concept.  They don't care how many of The Sheeple and The Shepherds get together and vote and make motions and condemn their consumption of a plant.  If marijuana is around, and they're in the mood, they're going to spark up. 

They believe that they own their own bodies. 

Once someone has internalized that core belief, it's not much of a jump to realize that you should also own the fruits of your own labor.  Working for someone else - like the taxman, at gunpoint, for the five months out of the year shouldn't be part of the bargain.  Or, "I own my labor/You own your labor".  You have no right to my body, or to a percentage of my labor and effort.  Yeah, we'll help each other, but we don't need to use force to make it happen.  As I heard someone at the conference say "Contract?  Social Contract?  I didn't sign no stinkin' contract !!"

It's even less of a leap for marijuana users to adapt the Libertarian Party's position on Foreign Policy issues.  Just as marijuana consumption is none of Bush or Barack's business, the oil reserves owned by Muslim countries are none of Bush or Barack's business.  "I own me.  You own the oil.  Give me enough oil to light my bong, and I'll let you have a hit, and we'll both be happier.  Free trade.  Herb's The Word." 

Or something like that. 

It was a great weekend.  I've had several requests for my charts and graphs showing debt level, spending levels, etc.  Will post them all later. 

And seeing this up on the screen at the marijuana legalization conference was a fine, fine moment. 

LIbertarian VP Candidate Judge Jim Gray at Texas Regional NORML Conference

My friend Shaun McAlister and the DFW/NORML tribe have put together a great lineup for their Texas conference.  Documentaries, speakers, How-To workshops and, of course, some rants.  Hit this link. 

My rant is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. June 8th, AND I GET TO INTRODUCE JUDGE JIM GRAY!!!  Yes, that Jim Gray.  The 2012 Libertarian Party VP nominee.    Norris Conference Center.  Downtown Fort Worth.  Hope to meet some of you good folks there.

Also, check out the 2:30 Saturday afternoon speaker.  Adrian Murray, Fort Worth Tea Party and 9-12 Activist.  If Adrian Murray is on board with ending prohibition then we've won half the battle.

******************************

Conference Agenda

This is the current agenda for the Texas Regional NORML Conference. All speakers are confirmed unless otherwise noted. Times are subject to change so check this page for the most up to date version.

Day 1 – Friday June 7, 2013
4:00 pm	Live Art and Music Reception at Froggy’s Boat House4400 White Settlement RoadFort Worth, Texas 76114$5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

Day 2 – Saturday June 8, 2013
9:00 am	Introductions by Shaun McAlister, Executive Director of DFW NORML
9:15 am	Cheyanne Weldon of Texas NORML
9:30 am	Keith Stroup, Legal Counsel and Founder of NORML
10:00 am	Russ Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
10:15 am	Terry Nelson, Executive Board Member at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), former Border Patrol agent and Homeland Security Supervisor
10:30 am	Allen Patterson, Chairman of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party
10:45 am	Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: Judge Jim Gray - 2012 Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate and Retired Superior Court Judge
11:15 am	Meet and Greet with Judge Jim Gray, Keith Stroup and Russ Belville
11:30 am	Break for Lunch
12:30 pm	Film Screening: American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny
2:00 pm	Mike Hyde, father of Cash Hyde and Founder of the Cash Hyde Foundation
2:30 pm	Adrian Murray, Founding member of the 912 Project Fort Worth
2:45 pm	Joy Strickland, Founder of Mothers Against Teen Violence
3:00 pm	Using Drugs Religiously: Dr. Russell Elleven, Unitarian Minister
3:30 pm	Family Law Attorney Leslie Burgoyne
3:45 pm	Workshop: Cultivating Quality Medicine Forest Scott and Nicole Pisut of Tinctura Coltivare
4:20 pm	Closing
5:00 pm	After Party #1 at Red Goose Saloon 306 Houston Street Fort Worth, Texas 76102 $5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

Day 3 – Sunday June 9, 2013
9:00 am	Introductions by Erik Altieri, Communications Director for National NORML
9:15 am	Stephen Betzen, Founder of the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care
9:30 am	Workshop: Medicinal Alternatives to Smoking Marijuana Toni Ann Haskett-Mills, Patient Advocate for Medical Cannabis Patients with 28 yrs experience in Direct Patient Care
10:00 am	Larry Talley, Strategist for DFW NORML, speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and retired US Navy
10:15 am	Clif Deuvall, Co-chair of Texas at US Marijuana Party of Texas, Chairman at Texas Cannabis Party and Founder Norml of Waco Inc. at NORML
10:30 am	Jamie Balagia, Public Information Officer and Attorney at San Antonio NORML
10:45 am	Russ Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
11:00 am	Hemp Fashion Show
11:45 am	Break for Lunch
1:30 pm	Workshop: Creating Concentrates Forest Scott and Nicole Pisut of Tinctura Coltivare
2:00 pm	Derek Cross, Author of Hemp Healthy Today
2:15 pm	Workshop: Cooking with Hemp Derek Cross, Author of Hemp Healthy Today
2:30 pm	Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project (UNCONFIRMED)
3:00 pm	Margarita McAuliffe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Texas Moms United
3:30 pm	Russ Buss Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
3:45 pm	Tristan Tucker, Executive Director of UNT NORML
4:00 pm	Shaun McAlister, Executive Director of DFW NORML
4:20 pm	Closing
5:00 pm	After Party #2 at the Whiskey Girl Saloon2413 Ellis Ave.Fort Worth, Texas 76164$5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

The DFW NORML April Meeting Video

Here's the DFW NORML April Meeting video, from the Whiskey Girl Saloon in the Fort Worth stockyards.  (Yes, they really do have a mock police car with a marijuana leaf on the hood.) 
Shaun McAlister has done one heck of a job building this organization. 
For anyone wondering what I look and sound like, go to the 12:00 mark. 
My observations on form, not content, below the video:



1) I need to lose 40 pounds.  Quick.  None of my old suits fit me, and I wanted one for our gun rights debate that was held earlier the same day.  Got this lovely ensemble, the jacket and pants, for just $104.00 at Sears (after saving $15.00 by getting a Sears credit card).  If those clothes were to catch on fire, they would melt back to their original state as a sheet of plastic. 

2) I need to smile more.  I mean really overdo it. 

3) Lord have mercy, I speak like someone from Mississippi. 

Shaun has also asked me to speak on the topic of my choice at the upcoming Texas Regional NORML Conference, June 7th-9th, in downtown Fort Worth's Norris Conference Center.  Hit the link.  I can't wait!!!

BTW, if you've ever wondered whether or not Broadway Baptist Church is the coolest religious institution on the planet, wonder no more.  Broadway has TWO members speaking at a weed legalization conference. The great Dr. Alan Bean is the other one.  Go figure. 

Herb's the word !!!

Chronica 2012 with DFW/NORML

The good folks at DFW/NORML are letting me speak at their "Chronica 2012" year-end party. 
Here's what I plan to say....

Hello, my name is Allen Patterson, and I’m Chair of The Tarrant County Libertarian Party.


For those of you who aren’t familiar with us, the Libertarian Party is dedicated to the radical idea that other people are not your property. I’ll be glad to talk with any of you about our beliefs later on tonight.

I’m here for four reasons, and I’ll be brief…..

First, I want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. For years and years, the Libertarian Party made small increases in its Tarrant County results. Bounced around with somewhere with a 10-15% increase every couple of years.

From 2010 to 2012, straight ticket Libertarian voting DOUBLED, from 1500 votes to 3000. Think about it, folks….there are now 3,000 people in Fort Worth and Arlington who are willing to go to the ballot box and vote for your right to be left alone. 3,000 voters willing to stand up against the Prohibitionist. And you good people at DFW/NORML are responsible for a huge part of the increase. Shaun McAlister, I love you like a brother, sir !! And in 2014, we’re going to go for 6,000 Libertarian straight ticket voters, or die trying.

The second thing I want to do tonight is piss you off. How many of you have seen the new Quentin Tarrantino movie “Django Unchained”? Slavery was a horrible system, wasn’t it???

That movie was set in 1855. It was an awful time. People did awful things to each other. But in the year 2012, 155 years later, we have more black men living in steel cages, or on probation or parole, than The Confederacy had living in steel cages in 1855. Most of those guys are in that situation because of the Drug War. 31% of Florida’s black male population can’t vote. They’re convicted felons. Convicted for owning a weed !! (And Shaun, we’ve got to get some more Brothers into the movement. Agreed?)

Since Richard Nixon started the War On Drugs in the early 1970’s, our government has spent 1.5 TRILLION dollars (that’s a fifteen with eleven zeroes) on the Drug War. That doesn’t include the amount we suffer from lost productivity, by the way. 1.5 trillion dollars !!

So how many of you have ever voted for one of these people as candidates for President or Vice President, in a primary or a general election? Bill Clinton George W. Bush Howard Dean John Edwards Newt Gingrich Al Gore John Kerry Sarah Palin Gary Johnson Barack Obama ?

Guess what they have in common? They’ve all smoked weed. Just like the 1.5 million people who were arrested for non-violent drug charges in 2011, all of them, at some point in their lives, have lit up a fat one. If you get caught, you get locked up in a steel cage with violent criminals. If you don’t get caught, you can be President. Go figure. So why do all these former tokers and smokers still support the drug war?

It’s because if the War On Drugs were to end tomorrow, it would eliminate the need for approximately 1 million government jobs. Barack Obama has one million jailers, narcs, border patrollers, torturers, parole officers, probation specialists and prison contractors who are voting for the status quo.

So what do we do?

Colorado and Washington State recently passed voter referendums on marijuana legalization. HMMmmmmm….. Let’s do that. But there are still some legal hassles involving growing, possession, transportation and the like. We need some people on the inside.

That gets me to point number three. The Libertarian Party needs candidates. We want to give voters a choice between Freedom and Prohibition, instead of flipping a coin between Team Red and Team Blue. If you want to put yourself out there, we’re waiting with open arms. We’ve got three levels. You can run as a “paper” candidate, just to offer a real choice for your neighborhood. All we ask is that you fill out newspaper surveys about your campaign. Better yet, you can run as an “educational” candidate, someone who goes to candidate forums and college campuses and speaks about why freedom is better than slavery. Then there’s the third level – you go out and do some fundraising and sink some money into a campaign that will scare the crap out of the Prohibition Parties.

We need you ! If you’re interested, go to the Tarrant County Libertarian Party website. You’ll see how to contact me.

Plus, Tarrant County’s going to be doing something special in 2014. We’re going to look at this year’s results by precinct, we’re going to look at the opposition in each race, and we’re going to try to determine which part of Tarrant County already has the most freedom lovers and NORML members. Then we’re going to select one candidate for that area’s Texas House race. We’re still going to give all the other candidates some love and affection. But the big effort is going to go into that one campaign. And it could be yours. We’re going to have a winner. I’ve heard a lot of County Chairs say that they weren’t in the business of picking winners and losers among their candidates. Screw that. We’re going to pick a winner, and we need your help knocking on doors, making phone calls, putting out yard signs and stuffing envelopes. If you love freedom enough to be a part of DFW/NORML, you already one of us.

I’m looking for a Moses to come out of the wilderness. I’m looking for someone who will get elected and go down to Austin and Washington to tell Rick Perry and Barack Obama to bulldoze their steel cages, lay off their Narcs, and fire their jailers. I need someone who will look Barack Obama in the eye and say “Barack Obama……..LET YOUR PEOPLE GO!!”

That gets me to point number four, and this is the last one. I don’t smoke, so I’m gonna go have a drink. Thanks so much for your support, your future support and your attention!!!

"Day Of The Dank"

DFW NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) threw a party last night.  It was called "Day Of The Dank".  Sort of a post-Halloween fundraiser.  I showed up with a bunch of Gary Johnson For President propaganda, and couldn't give it away. 

Because almost everyone there had already voted for Gary Johnson !!  They had persuaded their neighbors and co-workers and even their preachers to vote for Gary Johnson.  I felt almost NORMAL.  (Pun intended.) 

Bear with me for a few minutes while I get some fun pics out of the way.  I'll eventually get to my usual political point....

According to The Urban Dictionary, "Dank" is now "an expression frequently used by stoners and hippies for something of high quality".  This party was dank.  Dankness permeated the environment.  Lord have mercy, it was a good time. 

Five or six bands played.  They had on-site facepainting. 

I kept seeing people that I thought I knew, but it was hard to tell. 

Brief digression:  We had a Texas Tragedy at the state fair a couple of weeks ago.  An old statue named "Big Tex" caught on fire and burned all the way to the boots before anyone could do anything about it. 

I've now made it to four Halloween parties dressed as "Big Tex".  It's a cheap, low hassle, low maintenance costume, and it got plenty of laughs.  Here's my great friend (and Governor Gary Johnson's Texas Campaign Coordinator) Elizabeth Miller.  She and her friend Roman got their faces painted later, but she looks better as a live person who doesn't have her lips stitched together. 

 
DFW/NORML's deputy director Will Jenkins and I couldn't be photographed together.  Too much danger of ignition. 

This is Shaun McAlister and his lovely friend Andrea Brown.  Shaun and NORML have been working very hard for the Gary Johnson campaign for the last few months.  The LP couldn't ask for a better group of supporters than these folks. 

Throughout the Red Goose Saloon,  Shaun had put up quotes from various public figures about the need to legalize marijuana.  It was a broad spectrum.  Please excuse the quality of my cellphone pics below.  Like I said, the place was kinda.....dank. 

Here's the inevitable one from LP presidential candidate Gary Johnson.

And on the other side of the fence, here's something from Bill O'Reilly.  Yeah.  Bill O'Reilly. 

From mens' clothing guru George Zimmer:

From Melissa Etheridge:

From U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anon:

And finally, from Texas governor Rick Perry.  Rick Perry has figured out that locking up people for owning or consuming a plant is wrong.  Rick "Oops" Perry has figured it out. 

The "Day Of The Dank" party at Fort Worth's Red Goose Saloon was a great time with great people.  90% of them were marijuana consumers.  Most of the time, if you put 400-plus people into a relatively small bar or nightclub, you'll see some fights.  Not last night.  Everyone was peaceful.  Having a great time.  Mellow.  Dank.  It makes you wonder what our government (and its supporters in the booze industry) is so afraid of. 

The quotes on the wall from Bill O'Reilly and Kofi Anon were there to let everyone know what DFW/NORML and the Libertarian Party are about. Leave people alone to live their own lives.  What they do, as long as it doesn't harm others, is none of John Boehner's or Harry Reid's or Nancy Pelosi's business. 

If Rick freakin' Perry can figure that out, why can't these two guys?

End Prohibition.  Release the captives.  Mind yer own damn business. 
Gary Johnson for president !!!

Liberty Speaker Series - FRIENDS OF JUSTICE, DFW/NORML and LEAP !!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012, 7:00 PM


Hampton Inn and Suites, 2700 Green Oaks Road (Interstate 30 and Green Oaks Road), Fort Worth, TX

This is going to be incredible.  An eye-opener. 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party is kicking off its Liberty Speaker Series with a discussion of The New Jim Crow Laws - speakers will include Dr. Alan Bean of Friends Of Justice, Shaun McAlister of DFW NORML, and Larry S. Talley of LEAP.


As the United States celebrates its “triumph over race” with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of black men in major urban areas are under correctional control or saddled with criminal records for life. Jim Crow laws were wiped off the books decades ago, but today an extraordinary percentage of the African American community is warehoused in prisons or trapped in a parallel social universe, denied basic civil and human rights— including the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits.

Today, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet, as legal scholar Michelle Alexander has demonstrated, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once labeled a felon, even for a minor drug crime, the old forms of discrimination are suddenly legal again. In her words, “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

Dr. Alan Bean is the Executive Director of Friends of Justice, a criminal justice reform organization that specializes in narrative intervention. Dr. Bean was serving a Methodist church as an interim pastor when 46 people were arrested in Tulia, Texas on the uncorroborated word of a corrupt undercover officer. Dr. Bean’s articulate public protest transformed him into an advocate for criminal justice reform. In 2006, Dr. Bean’s work led to the exoneration of a Louisiana family convicted of running a crack cocaine ring on the perjured testimony of convicted drug dealers. Dr. Bean researched the story of six juvenile defendants in Jena LA, bringing public scrutiny to Jena and creating the biggest civil rights protest since the March on Washington. He is now working on a murder case in Mississippi that has gone to trial six times.

Shaun McAlister is the Executive Director of DFW NORML (National Organization For Reform Of Marijuana Laws). He is a graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas, and has worked in web design since 2004. Now employed by a full-service marketing firm, doing video and web design work, he enjoys applying that marketing skill set to his volunteer work with NORML. Mr. McAlister notes that his most difficult but satisfactory achievement has been to persuade businesses and corporations to openly support NORML and its mission.

Larry S. Talley is a member of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), a group of current and former members of law enforcement who believe the existing drug policies have failed in their intended goals of addressing the problems of crime, drug abuse, addiction, juvenile drug use, stopping the flow of illegal drugs into this country and the internal sale and use of illegal drugs. Mr. Talley served in the United States Navy from 1987-2007 as an intelligence specialist and was stationed at Naval Special Warfare Unit Eight in the Republic of Panama from 1991-1996. While stationed in Panama, he deployed frequently to various locations in Central and South America in support of counterdrug operations, where he formulated and implemented eradication strategy in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Agency and with many countries in the region. As a result of these experiences, Mr. Talley joined Law Enforcement Against Prohibition shortly after leaving military service.

Dr. Bean, our keynote speaker, will open our event with a description of the infamous Tulia, Texas drug raid, his role in the aftermath, and the formation of Friends Of Justice. Shaun and Larry will then speak about their organizations, their goals, and how individuals can make a difference. Allen Patterson, Tarrant County Libertarian Party Chair, will moderate a brief panel discussion, followed by questions from you.

If you've ever wondered why the U.S. has spent more than one trillion dollars on the Drug War, with nothing to show but increased drug use, then you don't want to miss this event.

If you think it's strange that we have only 6% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners, you need to come listen to Dr. Alan Bean.

If you are distubed to know that more African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began, and you want to do something about it, this is the event for you.

Thursday night, May 17th, 7:00, Hampton Inn, Interstate-30 and Green Oaks.

 
I thought about cropping out the tag line on this poster, the blurb about "It is your chance - Vote the Straight Democratic Ticket".  Decided not to.  It doesn't matter who is in charge, Democrats or Republicans, the War On Drugs continues to kill more people than drugs.